Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Hazelnut DelightsIt’s that lovely time of year when Trader Joe’s trots out oodles of holiday candies and treats. I like to cruise the aisles and look at all the great new and returning items. This year my eyes lit on the Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Delights. The box describes them as a crunchy hazelnut treat surrounded with praline, crispy wafer and milk chocolate. While I assumed that they are like Ferrero Rocher, the image on the box didn’t quite show whether they were flat or round (maybe the wafer is just that, a little disc). The box is also rather deep, and though it holds 7.05 ounces, I wasn’t sure how the items were packaged. Were they individually wrapped and just tossed in there? How many came in a box? Were they in a tray or just stacked up? When I got the box home and opened it, most of my questions were answered. Inside the trapezoidal box are two trays. Each tray is sealed in cellophane and has eight sections. (16 candies total in the box.) Each little spot holds a Hazelnut Delight. At this point I confirmed that there were a heck of a lot like a Ferrero Rocher. They’re also made in Germany, which is one of the locations that Ferrero has manufacturing facilities. The ingredients are impressive at first. The first item on the list is hazelnuts. After that it gets a little less enchanting. Ingredient #2 is sugar, which is absolutely expected in candy. #3 is vegetable oil (palm, rapeeseed and sunflower) and only after that do we get to the cocoa butter, wheat flour, chocolate liquor, whole milk powder, nonfat dry milk and cocoa ... then a bunch more stuff including more oils. The pieces are slightly larger than one bite. It’s a lumpy, bumpy ball and most had a little drizzle of white chocolate across them. What’s nice is that they’re not individually wrapped in foil, so it smells amazing, like roasted hazelnuts and hot chocolate. Biting into one, the construction will seem similar. It’s a milk chocolate shell covering crushed hazelnuts stuck to a hollow wafer sphere. Inside is a chocolate and hazelnut paste ... somewhere in there is a whole hazelnut. The amazing part though is the hazenuttiness. It’s just packed with them. It’s a sweet treat, but there’s both the whole hazelnut at the center plus the crushed hazelnuts then that hazelnut paste in the middle. There must be the equivalent of three or four hazelnuts in there. The chocolate coating is sweet and melts easily. The paste in the center is, well, pasty. It’s sticky and has a good cocoa flavor but not much on the hazelnut side, not a problem there, because the whole hazelnut pretty much takes care of that at some point. (In the photo cross-section I obviously hadn’t found it yet.) The wafer is crunchy and has a light caramelized sugar note to it, like good ice cream cones do. The crushed hazelnuts steal the show though, so crunchy and with such a distinctive roasted nut flavor I was quite enamored of these little delights. The price is a bit steeper than Ferrero Rocher (which I’ve seen on sale at drug stores for less than 1/2 the price from time to time). But there are far more hazelnuts here and of course they were extremely fresh. I might buy them again as a hostess gift for someone I was certain is a hazel-nut. I think I’d prefer a dark chocolate version for myself. Other items returning for 2009: Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:36 am |
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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really curious about the Belgian Chocolate Fancies… i had a box in my hand but ended up putting them back since i’m trying to behave this holiday season
They really look like Ferrero Rocher.
For $3.99, it’s alright. I should check it out.
These look exactly the same as the ones you can buy in Marks and Spencer’s in England! Interesting indeed.
I just tried these the other day - I must admit they don’t just look and smell amazing - they taste fantastic!
If you like this, I’m sure you guys would love Bacio, an italian chocolate. It’s produced by Perugina (nestle) and I think you should be able to buy it online if you want it
Am going to TJ’s soon and will definitely check these out.
oh my I want to write for your blog! Those look amazingly like a Ferrero Rocher which I LOVE!
I came here to say that these are identical to the “Operetta” candies from Marks & Spencer, that I was just eating. But I was beaten to it! :D
Even the inner wrapping, and the little white chocolate decoration on them it the same.
Wow! These are so yummy… something I wanna try! I’m so addicted to Ferrero!
Are you sure that they have more hazelnut than Ferrero? Ferrero has a whole hazelnut in the center, nutella (made from hazelnuts) and nuts on the outside too.
Rita - no I’m not certain. However, the first ingredient in Ferrero Rocher is Milk Chocolate, the first ingredient on these was Hazelnuts. And they just tasted nuttier. It could just be that they were really fresh, or not being individually wrapped makes them seem nuttier.
woohoo! i have been waiting for these for months. hazelnuts are my favorite, sadly it is so hard to find really good hazelnut/chocolate candies. thank goodness for these!
Dear Trader Joe ,
Do you have any Ferraro Mon Cheri Hazelnut chocolate
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